Hayashi Department Store

The Hayashi Department Store is a beautifully restored Art Deco building from 1932, the oldest surviving department store in Taiwan and one of the finest examples of Japanese colonial-era commercial architecture in the country. After falling into disuse and spending decades as a storage facility, the building was meticulously restored and reopened in 2014 as a curated space selling Taiwanese products — crafts, food, clothing, and design goods with a strong emphasis on local makers.

The restored interiors preserve the original tile floors, wooden staircases, and elevator cage. The top floor and rooftop are the most unusual part: a small Shinto shrine installed by the original Japanese owners in the 1930s still stands on the roof, an unexpected sight in a modern shopping context. The store makes a good stop for buying gifts or souvenirs, and the rooftop view over the surrounding low-rise cityscape is among the better ones in the old centre.

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A story
Built in 1932 by the Hayashi Trading Company, it was the largest and most modern building in Tainan when it opened — five storeys tall with an elevator, a revolutionary introduction in a city of low traditional shophouses. On the rooftop, the owners installed a small Shinto shrine, following a custom of incorporating Shinto worship into commercial buildings during the Japanese colonial period. The shrine survived the Japanese departure in 1945 and is still there today, a Shinto structure on the roof of a department store in a city that is now thoroughly Taiwanese.